Foyer, Archibald, supposed author. A defence of the Scots settlement at Darien. With an answer to the Spanish memorial against it. And arguments to prove that it is the interest of England to join with the Scots, and protect it. To which is added, a description of the country, and a particular account of the Scots colony. No place [Edinburgh?]: No publisher/printer, 1699. Small 4to (20 cm; 8"). [2] ff., 60 pp.$1250.00

Click the images for enlargements.

 As the 1690s wound down the lords and and burghers of Scotland dreamed of an overseas empire such as Spain, England, Portugal, and the Dutch had, and to this end came into existence the Company of Scotland for Trading to Africa and the Indies. Chartered in 1695 and with a coffer of some £400,000, it established a colony (“Darien”) on the Caribbean coast of what is now Panama, a worse location being hard to conceive. Even today that site is virtually uninhabited.

Trouble plagued the enterprise from the arrival of the first Scots in 1698 and it fairly shortly collapsed for lack of supplies, malaria, other diseases, internal dissension, a nonexistent trading base, and the might of the Spanish military in the region. The wreck of the scheme led to an economic crisis at home which in turn helped enable the 1707 Act of Unification.

The vast bulk of this work attempts to convince the English to support the Scots' enterprise and cites political, religious, social, and economic reasons for doing so; clearly, the Scots knew that English naval might in particular would be essential for the success of the scheme. Beyond this, however, a section (pp. 42 to 51) addresses the natural history, native population, agricultural commodities, and indigenous industry of the region; and the work ends with an account of the Scots' settlement, the buildings erected there, and its intercourse with the indigenous people.

Authorship of this work is problematic: It is signed “Philo-Caledon” at the end of the dedication and three other names have have been proposed as possible authors in addition to Foyer's — George Ridpath, Andrew Fletcher, and John Hamilton (2nd Baron Belhaven). Added to the conundrum of authorship, the work was produced in four editions in the same year, each having different numbers of pages, each with a different signature scheme, none with a publisher, and this one without even a place of publication!

 Wing (rev. ed.) F2047; Sabin 78211; Alden & Landis 699/9; ESTC R18505 ; and Halkett & Laing II:32. 20th-century half dark brown crushed morocco with brown linen sides. This copy has all the hallmarks of having once been through a British bookseller's “hospital”: all leaves are dust-soiled or age-toned; all leaves are uncut but some have been extended and others not, and some leaves with torn margins (but not all) have had lost paper restored; all such repairs and extensions are within the first six leaves, meaning these were probably supplied from another copy. Top of title-leaf trimmed with loss of “A” of the title; another leaf with a tear to the top margin with loss costing tops of several letters of words on one page, and two leaves with the running head guillotined by a binder; some stray stains.An interesting copy for its probable if problematic history and condition. (34130)

 Paired in this pocket-sized volume are an elegant 16th-century calendar and a French, Geneva N.T. The calendar — printed for use in 1566 — containstwelve attractive and well-impressed one-third page size woodcuts depicting the various chores required in each month, such as shearing sheep in June or crushing grapes in September, and it ends with French fair dates generally as well as dates for fairs in Lyon, Frankfurt, and Anvers specifically.

The French N.T. contains revisions and numerous marginal notes from Marlorat (1506–62), a French reformer and popular preacher, and was published only two years after he wasmartyred at Rouen in 1562 under charges of treason. While this N.T. lacks its title-page, its contents match those of Van Eys N.T. 118.

Binding: Late 19th- or early 20th-century tan calf, spine gilt extra with two gilt leather labels; covers framed in gilt and triple-ruled in blind, with marbled endpapers, gilt board edges and turn-ins. All edges gilt.

Searches of NUC, WorldCat, COPAC, and KVK find only one copy of the almanac and one of the New Testament, bound together. They are in the Württembergische Landesbibliothek. However Chambers lists five copies in addition to that one, including one at the National Library of Scotland that is not findable via COPAC.

 Van Eys, Bibles French, pt. II, 118; Chambers, French Bibles, 340; not in Darlow & Moule. Bound as above, rebacked, with gentle rubbing. Light general age-toning with this greater at edges, Bible title-page lacking; two early leaves darkened and one repaired, some leaves closely trimmed touching captions or with loss of a letter or two from marginal notes, two leaves with short tears and three each with a small spot. Ex-library as above: pencilling on endpapers, five-digit acquisition stamp and call number on title-page verso, booklabel at back. A compact and dare it be said “darling” book. (36407)

CORNERSTONEfor anAMERICANSPORTINGLIBRARY

“Gentleman
of Philadelphia County, A”[i.e.,
Jesse Y. Kester]. The American shooter's manual, comprising
such plain and simple rules, as are necessary to introduce the inexperienced
into a full knowledge of all that relates to the dog, and the correct use of
a gun; also a description of the game of this country. Philadelphia: Carey,
Lea & Carey, 1827. 12mo (18.5 cm; 7.125"). [2] ff., pp. [ix]–249,
[1] p., [1 (errata)] f., [3 (ads)] ff.; frontis., 2 plts.$1800.00

Click the images for enlargements.

 The first American illustrated sporting
book and the first American sporting book written by an American.
Only one sporting book published in America preceded it: The Sportsman's
Companion (NY,1783; later editions Burlington [NJ], 1791, and Philadelphia,
1793), “by a gentleman, who has made shooting his favorite amusement upwards
of twenty-six years, in Great-Britain, Ireland, and North-America.”

Kester deals almost exclusively with game birds and waterfowl native to the
Delaware Valley that surrounds Philadelphia: wild turkeys, partridge, snipe,
quail, grouse, and ducks. With regard to rifles and guns he addresses cleaning,
powder, wadding, etc. And when writing about dogs, in addition to notes on training
and conditioning them, he offers recipes for common ailments and gun-shot wounds.

The plates are signed “F. Kearny,” an artist born in Perth Amboy,
NJ, who studied drawing with Archibald and Alexander Robertson and engraving
with Peter Maverick. From 1810 to his death in 1833 he practiced engraving
in Philadelphia.

There are two states of gathering “U”: this copy has the typographical
error “tibbon” with the stop-press correction to “ribbon”
on p. 235.

The volume ends with advertisements for several sporting and fishing goods
suppliers.

 First edition: Description of the Kannaur (or Kunáwár) region of the Himalayas, taken from the late Capt. Gerard's papers and edited by George Lloyd. Charles William Wason, in the Monthly Review (1841 collected volume), opened his review of this work by saying “Captain Alexander Gerard, and his brother Dr. J.G. Gerard, have been deservedly ranked amongst the most enterprising scientific travellers to whom Great Britain has given birth,” and he went on to predict that this volume “will be regarded as a precious contribution to science, and to geographical knowledge.”

Gerard's observations cover botany, linguistics, culture, and commerce, as well as geography. The area of his travels is depicted by an oversized, folding map of his own design.

 NSTC 2G5453; Howgego, II, G7. Contemporary brown cloth, spine with gilt-stamped title; rebacked and 95% of original spine reapplied, with the publisher's name at the foot of the spine chipped. Front pastedown and back of map each with institutional rubber-stamp (no other markings), front free endpaper with inked ownership inscription dated [18]49. Hinges (inside) reinforced. Last preface page with small inked annotation. Pages slightly age-toned; map with light offsetting and one short tear starting along fold, not touching image. (24291)

Polentabefore It Was Made with“Turkey Wheat” &WoodcutsfromtheMoretus Press

 “When reading Gerard we are wandering in the peace of an Elizabethan garden, with a companion whohas a story for every flower and is full of wise philosophies” (Woodward, p. viii). And indeed, Gerard's herbal is written in “glorious Elizabethan prose, [with] the folk-lore steeping its pages'” (Woodward, p. vii), these factors going a long way towards making it one of the best-known and -loved of the early English herbals. The “herbs” surveyed include plants aquatic and terrestrial, New World and Old, embracing shrubs, plants, and trees, each with a description of its structure and appearance, where it is found (and how it got there), when it is sown and reaped or flowers, its name or names (often with engrossingly exotic etymologies), its “temperature,” and its “vertues” or uses (often curious).

The story is famous: John Norton, Queen's printer, wished to bring out an English language version of Dodoen's Pemptades of 1583 and hired a certain “Dr. Priest” to do so, but the translator died with the work only partially done. A copy of the manuscript translation made its way into John Gerard's hands and he seized the opportunity, reorganizing the contents, obscuring the previous translator's contribution, incorporating aspects of Rembert and Cruydenboeck's works, and commandeering the result as his own.

Gerard abandoned Dodoen's classification, opting for l'Obel's instead, and, in a stroke of ambition and brilliance, illustrated the work withmore than 2500 woodcuts of plants. Many of these are large and all are attractive but more than a few were of plants he himself did not know, thus leading to considerable confusion between illustration and text in the earliest editions, this being third overall and the second with Thomas Johnson's additions and amendments. For both Johnson editionsa large number of the woodcuts were obtained from the famous Leyden printing and publishing firm of Moretus, successors to the highly famous firm of Plantin. As Johnston notes: “Most of the cuts were those used in the botanicals published by Plantin, although a number of new woodcuts were added after drawings by Johnson and Goodyer” (Cleveland Herbal . . . Collections, #185).

The large thick volume begins with a handsome engraved title-page by John Payne incorporating a bust of the author, urns with flowers and herbs, and full-length seated images of Dioscorides and Theophrastus and of Ceres and Pomona. Replacing the missing initial blank is a later leaf on which is mounted a large engraving of Gerard. The text is printed in italic, roman, and gothic type.

There is, to us, a surprising and very interesting section on grapes and wines. The first part of our caption delights partly in discovery that maize, the “corn” of the U.S., is here called “turkey wheat” — with further note that you can make bread of it, but that the result is pleasing only to “barbarous” tastes! The entry as a whole showsGerard at his characteristic best, at once scientifically systematic and engagingly discursive.

Provenance: Neatly lettered name of “W. Younge” at top of title-page; it is tempting to attribute this to William Younge, physician of Sheffield and Fellow of the Royal Linnean Society, whose online correspondence shows him to have been an eager collector of botanical books.

 STC (rev. ed.) 11752; Alden & Landis, European Americana, 636/25; Nissen, Botanischebuchs, 698n; Pritzel 3282n; Johnston, The Cleveland Herbal, Botanical, and Horticultural Collections, 185; Woodward, Gerard's Herball: The essence thereof distilled (London, 1964). On the source of the blocks, see: Hunt Botanical Catalogue and Bowen, K. L., & D. Imhof, The illustration of Books Published by the Moretuses (Antwerpen, 1997). For “Turkey Wheat, “ see: Gerard, p. 81; for polenta, p. 71. Late 17th-century English calf, plain style; rebacked professionally in the 20th century, later endpapers. As usual, without the first and last blank leaves. Three leaves with natural paper flaws in blank margins. A very good copy. (34500)

 Following the ruin of Santiago de los Caballeros by the big earthquake of 1773, the capital of Guatemala was moved first to the little town of Mixco and then later to the location of the present site of Guatemala City. Offered here is the highly important report of the commission headed by Juan González Bustillo on that devastating July, 1773 earthquake: It occupies pp. 1–55 and is followed by "Prosigue la relacion, ô Extracto de todo lo que resulta èvacuado en la Junta general, y demas que se ha tenido presente hasta la conclusion del assunto de translacion, e informe, que debe hacerse à Su Magestad” on pp. 57–86.

The careful, lengthy, and contemporary reports present here detail the day’s events, give the sequence of the destruction of various buildings and areas of the city, recount salvage and evacuation efforts, etc. The writers (and the citizens) erroneously blamed the nearby volcanos for causing the tremors and quaking, but that was logical at the time. Seeking historical perspective, the commissioners make significant and informed comparisons with earlier earthquakes.

This document is one of the very few printed in the temporary capital of Mixco, a press having been salvaged from the ruins in the former capital. Thus, Mixco was the second city/town to have a press in Central America, and then, for only a short time—appoximately two years.

In addition to being important for its contents and in the realm of printing history, the González Bustillo report is uncommon: We trace only half a dozen copies in U.S. libraries.

 Medina, Guatemala, 384; Palau 105113; Sabin 27811. Modern full calf, very plain style. Without the final leaf with one erratum on it. (13841)

A VeryBroad Range of Natural History &Philosophy,
in(Just) Two Volumes

 First U.S. editionof this general overview of natural history, science, learning, and philosophy written by a British physician, scholar, and linguist remembered for his blank verse translation of Lucretius. The work was originally presented as a series of lectures at the Surrey Institution, 1811–12; it includes sections on geology; zoological systems; animal vs. vegetable life; circulation and digestion; mesmerism (under “Sympathy and Fascination”); literary education in the classical, medieval, and Renaissance eras; sleep, dreaming, and trance; the nature of the soul; and physiognomy and craniognomy, among other topics.

 Hall (1788–1844), a Scot, naval officer, and author of several accounts of voyages and travels including Account of a Voyage of Discovery to the West Coast of Corea and the Great Loo-Choo Island in the Japan Sea (1818), Extracts from a Journal Written on the Coasts of Chili, Peru, and Mexico in the years 1820, 1821, 1822 (1824), and Travels in North America in 1827–28, tells his correspondent that she is welcome to call on him on Sunday as she proposes, any time after 10:30 A.M. He gives detailed instructions on how to reach his house: It “is on the top of the Heath close to the Telegraph, which is a single Staff, a Semaphore.” He tells her he has finished making notes of her vol. II but has lent vol. I to another and does not yet have it returned to him.

As Hall writes that he will be easy to find because he is “about as well known here  though I hope in a different spirit  as in Yankee Land,” we date the letter to some time shortly enough after publication of Travels in North America for oblique reference to its angry reception there to be both natural and “fresh”; and, indeed, we wonder if his correspondent is American?

 Very good condition. Old folds, a few spots of pale tea-colored stains. Written in a pale ink that is yet quite legible. (33346)

Hayden's
Survey:ThomasonGrasshoppers&Locusts

Hayden, Ferdinand Vandeveer, and Cyrus Thomas. Report
of the United States Geological Survey of the territories: Synopsis of the Acrididae of North America.
Washington: Government Printing Office, 1873. Folio (31.5 cm, 12.4"). x, 24, 262 pp.; 1 plt.$375.00

Click the interior images for enlargements.

 First edition: Vol. V of a five-volume series, this volume is dedicated to zoology and
botany. Ferdinand Vandeveer Hayden, remembered today as one of the primary proponents of the
creation of Yellowstone National Park, was a surgeon and geologist who led the massive United States
Geological and Geographical Survey of the Territories from 1867 through 1879, and edited the
resulting publications. The present portion of that enormous undertaking consists of “A Synopsis of
the Acrididae of North America,” written by pioneering American entomologist Cyrus Thomas.

Thomas's monograph describes earwigs, cockroaches, devils-horses, walking-sticks,
grasshoppers (this category including locusts), and crickets, and is illustrated
with a few in-text wood engravings in addition to the lithographed plate (done
by W.H. Holmes) showing 17 different U.S. insects. This copy is uncut and unopened.

 First edition: Vol. VII of the final reports of Hayden’s massive survey, consisting of Leo Lesquereux’s report on the “Tertiary Flora” of the American west. This treatise is part II of “Contributions to the Fossil Flora of the Western Territories,” but complete in and of itself, and illustrated with 65 plates lithographed by T. Sinclair & Son.

 First edition of this impressive herbal by the prolific and energetic botanist who first introduced the Linnaean system of nomenclature to Great Britain — a polemical figure whose failed acting career and disputes with members of the Royal Society led to academic snubbing despite his notable contributions to science and literature.

This work was originally issued in 52 parts between January 1756 and January 1757, and appears here in its first book-form edition, with a title-page printed in red and black (the title-page is dated 1756 as it was issued with the first part, as per Henrey). Entries cover general plant descriptions along with information on medicinal usages; exotic species grown in Britain are included along with the “natives” of the title.

75 copper-engraved plates by Boyce, Darly and Edwards, Benning, and other hands follow the text, each plate packed with images of multiple plants (uncolored here). The frontispiece, “The Genius of Health receiving the tributes of Europe, Asia, Africa, and America, and delivering them to the British Reader,” was designed by Samuel Wade and engraved by Henry Roberts; Wade also designed the title-page vignette, “Asculapius and Flora gathering from the Lap of Nature,” which was engraved by his frequent collaborator Charles Grignion the Elder.

Provenance & Evidence of Readership: Front pastedown with two attractive bookplates of a British independent school and the manor in which it was founded (Canford). The front free endpaper and frontispiece recto are carefully annotated in an early inked hand with summaries of each class of plants described herein, along with appropriate page and plate numbers; the first four plates (only) have neatly and faintly pencilled page numbers with almost every item.

 ESTC T29713; Rohde, Old English Herbals, 222; Nissen 881; Henrey, British Botanical and Horticultural Literature, II, 666 & item 798; Brunet, III, 167. Contemporary mottled calf, moderately rubbed and scuffed with spine extremities chipped, gilt-stamped leather spine label chipped with loss of two letters, joints and corners refurbished. Front pastedown with early inked ownership inscription; endpaper and frontispiece with neatly inked contents annotations as above; plate numbers inked or pencilled in margins of the corresponding texts for the first few leaves only. A few plates with light foxing almost entirely confined to margins, five plates with small area of pinholes in vicinity of images; contents otherwise in pleasing condition. A solid, clean, pleasing copy of an important entry in British botanical studies. (34664)

The Medicinal Virtuesof PlantsIllustrated

Hill, John. The family herbal, or an account of all those English plants, which are remarkable for their virtues, and of the drugs which are produced by vegetables of other countries; with their descriptions and their uses, as proved by experience. Bungay: J. & R. Childs, 1822. 8vo (21.2 cm, 8.4"). viii, xl, 376 pp.; 54 col. plts.$750.00

Click the images for enlargements.

 19th-century edition of Hill's popular herbal handbook for home medicinal use, originally published in 1755 and here illustrated with54 delicately tinted hand-colored plates, most bearing three images each. The author was a prolific and energetic botanist known for his Vegetable System and other works.

Provenance: Front free endpaper with early inked inscription: “John Watts Book [/] Dunfermline”; front pastedown with inscriptions of both John Watt and Robert Watt, and back free endpaper with that of John.

 Rohde, Old English Herbals, 222; Nissen 881 (for Bungay 1803 ed.); Henrey, British Botanical and Horticultural Literature, III, 829. Contemporary half calf and marbled paper–covered sides, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label and rules and blind-stamped devices in compartments; binding worn and scuffed, front joint cracked (sewing holding), spine leather with a number of small cracks. One plate with very short tear from upper margin, just barely extending into plate edge and not approaching image; small spots of foxing to some pages and plates, with two early plates showing somewhat more noticeable spotting. A very browsable and readable copy, with lovely plates. (34849)

 Four-plus pages here offer the writer'svery detailed accountof his own, personal observations of the “phenomenon,” which had nothing to do with glaciers but rather represented a period of extraordinary cold that producedice formations of unusual (and beautiful) sorts.

 Uncommon edition of the work called Elucidarius: Based in part on an 11th-century treatise on theology and world history written in Latin by an enigmatic monk living in England at the time of his composition of his treatise, this German vernacular compendium of general knowledge appears here not only much expanded beyond that original work but alsoreformed and secularized to some extent, covering geography (including a reference to America), cosmography, and natural history as well as religion — making this one of the earliest such extensive and encyclopedic works written in German.

While there were a number of Frankfurt editions of this and Egenolff and his heirs themselves issued it several times, the present 1584 printing appears to be one of the scarcest: WorldCat reportsonly one U.S. institutional location, and that copy is incomplete. The edition features a title-page printed in red and black, with a vignette of a man balancing an armillary sphere on his back and hoisting a compass flanked by a male and a female grotesque; the text is printed in an attractive black letter and opens withtwo leaves of full-page woodcut illustrations (God pulling Eve from Adam's side, a set of twenty monstrous humanoids from around the world, a map of the world done after one in the Nuremberg Chronicle, and a scene of a scholar pointing towards the sun and moon). Other woodcut illustrations that range from a quarter of a page to full-page in size include astronomical diagrams, emblematic scenes including cosmological schematics, Atlas supporting the heavens, a well-dressed gentleman making use of a measuring rod, and a beautiful, elaborated version of the Egenolff device on the colophon page in which the printer's characteristic flaming, sacrificed heart is shown between apposite views of Abraham and Isaac and Balaam and his ass.

In supplement to the main portion, following it, is Jakob Köbel's “Bauren Compassz” (Bauern-Compass, or Farmer's Compass).

Provenance: From the library of American collector Albert A. Howard, small booklabel (“AHA”) at rear.

 A wholesome volume celebrating the country as it changes throughout the year. Each month is a new chapter, introduced with acharming illustration from designs by Birket Foster.

 Original green cloth with blind-stamping to boards and gilt-decorated spine; fading to spine, front hinge opening with board attached by cloth and endpapers; spots of discoloration to boards and corners bumped. Ownership signature on front free endpaper. A “good used” copy. (37742)

England's FirstHOME-GROWN GARDENINGBook

Hyll [Hill], Thomas. The profitable arte of gardening: to which is added much necessarie matter, and a number of secrets, with the phisicke helps belonging to each hearbe, and that easily prepared. London: Edward Allde, 1593. 4to (19.2 cm, 7.55"). [8], 164 pp. (lacking pp. 57/58, 65–68, 83/84, & final 92 pp. appendix); illus.[SOLD]

Click the images for enlargements.

 Early, uncommon edition of thefirst general treatise on gardening in English: an Elizabethan florilegium of growing advice and medicinal lore, compiled by an author who also published under the amusing semi–nom de plume “Didymus Mountain.” For this popular work, Hill selected and “Englished” quotations and information from classic texts including those of Pliny, Cato, Theophrastus, Aristotle, Dioscorides, Galen, among others; it was originally published ca. 1558 under the title A Briefe Treatyse of Gardening.

The text, much of which is printed in black letter, is illustrated with three attractive in-text woodcuts of mazes and an enclosed garden (the latter first used on the title-page of the first edition, but appearing here in the text instead), as well as with a full-page diagram of “a proper knot for a Garden, where is spare rome enough, the which may be set either with Time or Isope, at the discretion of the Gardener.” The appendices mentioned on the title-page (on beekeeping, husbandry, and tree grafting, under a separate title-page and with separate pagination) are not present in this copy.

Provenance: From the library of American collector Albert A. Howard, small booklabel (“AHA”) at rear.

 ESTC S104120; Henrey, I, 200; Hunt Botanical Cat., 167; Luborsky & Ingram, Guide to English Illustrated Books, 13495; Graesse, III, 279. Not in Adams or Brunet. Early 20th-century half blue cloth and marbled paper–covered sides, spine with gilt-stamped title; spine and edges sunned to tan, cloth showing some minor bubbling. Lacking pages 57/58, 65–68, and 83/84 as well as the final appendix as described above. Two leaves with unobtrusive, neatly done repairs and one with slightly more noticeable repair, not obscuring sense; one leaf with small hole and short tear in upper outer corner, not touching text. Center of volume with small area of worming at lower inner portions, generally in between lines but occasionally touching a few letters. Pages age-toned, some with mild to moderate waterstaining in most outer margins, with last portion more generally and darkly stained; scattered spots of mild staining and foxing elsewhere. Imperfect, and so priced, but still scarce and desirable. (37841)

 One of the great classical Japanese essays: Kamo no Chōmei's Hōjōki, translated into English by Donald Keene and here in an elegantly minimalist fine press limited edition from Claude Fredericks of the Banyan Press. Some describe the work as “the Walden Pond of medieval Japan.”

This is thefirst book-form edition of the translation, following its original appearance in Keene's Anthology of Japanese Literature; three hundred copies were set by hand in Garamond and printed on Masa paper by Fredericks and David Beeken.

 Original hand-stitched wrappers resembling bamboo grain, with paper label on front wrapper, in paper overlay matching the endpapers; outer overlay with minor edge wear and with small annotation (possibly from publisher) on label. A lovely and uncommon production. (35979)

 First U.S. edition: No. 7 from the influential “Bridgewater Treatises on the Power, Wisdom and Goodness of God as Manifested in the Creation” series, commissioned by the Earl of Bridgewater to defend Paley's theist arguments. This entry in the series was written by the Rev. Kirby, known as the “father of entomology,” and naturally has much to offer on the subject of insects — but also on fish, birds, reptiles, and mammals.

The volume is illustrated with20 copper-engraved plates by prominent Philadelphia engraver and publisher Joseph Yeager, including one dainty bird and a number of interesting sea creatures.

 First edition: Engaging periodical compilation of poetry, history, Christian meditations, natural history, art and literary criticism, biography, and fiction, set forth in 52 weekly issues meant to be consumed in half-hour portions, with each weekly number containing seven half-hours. (Indices and quarterly title-pages are bound in here.)

Knight, who was devoted to books and to literature from the time he was a small child,
was a much-admired printer and publisher, as well as an author, reformer, and would-be
educator: Many of his publishing endeavors were aimed at improving and enlightening the
working class.

 NSTC 2K7731. On Knight, see: Oxford Dictionary of National
Biography online. On binding cloth, see: Krupp, Bookcloth, style Wav3.
Publisher's textured brown cloth, covers blind-stamped with muse motif and title, spines with
gilt-stamped title and blind-stamped decorations; lightly worn overall with some fading, vol. II
spine head with traces of a strip of cloth tape. Ex–social club library: 19th-century bookplate,
call number on endpaper, pressure-stamp on title-page, no other markings. Paper slightly
embrittled (more so in second volume), with a few short edge tears. Externally ordinary;
internally worthwhile. (26860)

If interested in such (embossed)
bindings, click here
for a database including not in PRB&M's
illustrated catalogues . . .keyword
= KRUPP.

Langham, William. The garden of health: containing the sundry rare and hidden vertues and properties of all kindes of simples and plants. Together with the manner how they are to bee used and applyed in medicine for the health of mans body, against divers diseases and infirmities most common amongst men. London: Printed by Thomas Harper, 1633. 4to in 8s (19 cm; 7.5"). [4] ff., 702 pp., [33] ff.$3400.00

Click the images for enlargements.

 Preparing for a trip from England to Virginia or Massachusetts in the 1630s or 40s, one would have been well advised to make sure someone in the party was bringing a copy of Langham's work. Once in America, one would have made good use of the herbal remedies for some of the more common ailments the newly arrived would have suffered, and one would have had greater access to the “exotic” American sarsaparilla and guaiacum that Langham discusses.

This precursor to the “Physician's Desk Reference” is a practical compendium of medicinal and other plants arranged alphabetically from “acacia” to “wormwood” with a strong emphasis on plants that “can be gotten without any cost or labour, the most of them being such as grow in most places and are common among us” (folio [2]).

Langham's organization is this: “He devoted a chapter to each plant, describing its parts and their uses, the different processes such as distillation that could be applied to it, and how the resulting products could be used for particular diseases. To every item of information he added a number and at the end of the chapter there is an index or table of conditions with the numbers that were in the main text. The reader can thus see at a glance that one herb could be used in a wide variety of conditions, and whether a specific illness could be helped by a particular drug” (Wear, pp. 82–83).

This is the second edition, “corrected and amended,” the first having appeared in 1597. We are sure the reading public, which was sufficient to support a second edition, would have been helped rather more if the work had had illustrations, but that would have increased the cost of the work dramatically and awide audience was sought. The text is printed chiefly in gothic type while the end of chapter “indices” are in roman. This herbal was not printed during a period of good English typography, so the pages are dense with little white space or appreciation for making the text on the page easy on the eye rather than wearying.

 ESTC S108241; STC (rev. ed.) 15196; Alden & Landis 633/67; Huth Library 817. On Langham, see Andrew Wear, Knowledge & Practice in English Medicine, 1550–1680. Contemporary English calf, boards modestly ruled in blind at edges; rebacked in high quality goat. Age-toning or old soiling, especially at the edges of margins and with offsetting from binding to title-page; some light marginal waterstaining especially at end in index; some short tears with last leaves' edges chopped and final two with edges strengthened.Overall, an unsophisticated copy that has been spared being washed, pressed, and gussied up! (34545)

The Secret Is in Their Eyes — Five Volumes as Here Bound — Hundreds of EngravingsIncluding the work of Fuseli & Blake

 First edition in English ofLavater's study of character based on physical attributes. Originally published in German (Physiognomische Fragmente, 1775–78), these influential Essays were translated into English by Henry Hunter (1741–1802) from the subsequent French edition (La Haye, 1781-87), and published in 41 parts under the direction of Royal Academy artists Henry Fuseli (1741–1825) and Thomas Holloway (1748–1827), who both contributed illustrations. In fact, Lavater (1741–1801), a Swiss priest and poet, had no part in the new publication; Hunter arranged the endeavor with Holloway and publisher John Murray without the consent of the author, who learned of the project after it had gone to press, and objected, fearing a new edition would subtract from sales of the old.

These books containover 360 engraved illustrations in the textand 132 full-page engraved plates, many of which Holloway copied directly from the French edition; it's the multiple images on the full-page plates that produce the proud claim of “more than 800 engravings” on the title-page. They includeportraits of famous wrinkled writers, philosophers, musicians, monarchs, statesmen, and Lavater himself; silhouettes of Jesus and portraits of Mary; details of male, female, and animal attributes; and skulls, hairlines, eyes, noses, and mouths, among other features, engraved by Holloway, Fuseli, William Blake (1757–1827), James Neagle (1765–1822), Anker Smith (1759–1819), James Caldwall (1739–ca. 1819), Isaac Taylor (1730–1807), and William Sharp (1749–1824), inter alios, after works of art by Rubens, Van Dyke, Raphael, Fuseli, LeBrun, Daniel Chodowiecki (1726–1801). The commentary on these images makes this a work ofart history/criticism, as Lavater is both free and detailed in his notes of how various artists handle details of physiognomy and body language to express character and engender beauty.

The first systematic treatise on physiognomy was written by Aristotle. Publications on the subject continued steadily throughout the ages, although the developing study of anatomy in the 17th century detracted interest from what later came to be known as pseudoscience. Lavater's is the only notable treatise in the 18th century, and indeed, “. . . [his] name would be forgotten but for [this] work,” which was very popular in France, Germany, and England (EB).

Provenance: Bookplate of Nicholas Power on front pastedown of all five volumes (related to Richard Power, Esq., of Ireland, listed as a subscriber?); and bookplate of Gordon Abbott on front free endpaper of three volumes, engraved by J.W. Spenceley of Boston in 1905.

 Wellcome, III, 458; Garrison-Morton 154; ESTC T139902; Lowndes II, p.1321 (“a sumptuous edition”); Osler, Bib. Osleriana, p. 283, no. 3178; Bentley Blake Books 481; Ryskamp, William Blake, Engraver, 22. On the parts, see: Arents Collection of Books in Parts, p. 74. Contemporary calf ruled and tooled in gilt and blind with gilt board edges and gilt turn-ins, rebacked old style; marbled edges, and blue silk marker in all volumes. Extremities rubbed and corners bumped with small loss to leather. At least one small marginal tear in each volume; offsetting from letterpress on a few leaves; very mild to quite moderate foxing (or none) on illustrations, offset onto surrounding leaves; and other occasional minor stains. Most plates protected by tissue. A monument of labor, art, and excellent “system” devoted to an exploded but fascinating theory; in fact, a wonder. (30974)

United Brethren Missions to“The Indians in North America”

Loskiel, George Henry. History of the mission of the United Brethren among the Indians in North America. In three parts.... Translated from the German by Christian Ignatius la Trobe. London: Pr. for the Brethren's Society for the Furtherance of the Gospel by John Stockdale, 1794. 8vo (21.3 cm, 8.4"). xii, 159, [1 (blank)], 234, [2 (blank)], 233, [1 (blank)], [22 (index and advertisement)] pp. (lacking map).$725.00

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 First English translation of Loskiel's highly informative account of missionary activities among Native American tribes “to the west of New England, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, North and South Carolina, and Georgia” (p. 2), dating between 1735 and 1787. Before recounting the mission's history, the author describes the customs, languages, and beliefs of various tribes, along with the flora and fauna prevalent in their territories. A great deal of Loskiel's information is taken from the accounts of Bishop Augustus Gottlieb Spangenberg and David Zeisberger, the latter having served for over 40 years as a missionary in North America. Howes notes that the English edition “omits naming some former antagonists who had later become friendly.”

Provenance:Front pastedown with early inked ownership inscription of James Beatty; two additional similar inscriptions dated 1825 and 1826. First preface page with genealogical annotations regarding the Beatty family, including remarks on the Staten Island Moravian Church's acquisition of John Beatty's land, and a note that the James Beatty who owned this volume was the son of that donor; all three generations of Beattys were strong supporters of the Moravian Church.

 The controversial Lutze (1813–70), a disciple of famed homeopath Samuel Hahnemann, was a charismatic Prussian physician who practiced for many years as a mesmerist and homeopathic doctor, founding a large and lavishly appointed hospital in Köthen, Germany. This volume is his encyclopedic guide to symptoms and their appropriate prescriptions.Needless to say there is an interesting herbal section.This is an early edition (stated sixth), following the first of 1855.

Provenance: Front pastedown with label of H.C.G. Luyties' Homeopathic Pharmacy of St. Louis, MO. It was a long-standing practice of pharmacies/herbalists (whether “homeopathic” or other) to also sell books.

 Publisher's half roan and marbled paper–covered sides, spine with gilt-stamped title and arabesque decorations; mildly to moderately scuffed overall, spine sunned and with small tear in upper part of leather. Paper browned and slightly embrittled; one preliminary leaf with a tear from outer margin extending into text without loss. Front joint (outside cracked in top portion, hinge (inside) cracked and
with an old repair, board holding nicely. Good condition with faults noted. (35823)

One of the Great 16th-Century ILLUSTRATEDHerbals — A Several-Times“Working”Copy

 An early printing if an incomplete copy of this brilliantly successful rendition of Dioscorides' Materia Medica, here in Latin (and some Greek) with Mattioli's extensive commentary, added plants not found in Dioscorides, andcopious woodcut illustrations. Mattioli first published his Italian translation in 1544, and the first Latin edition followed in 1554; the Latin commentaries here are revised and expanded from the “Discorsi” of the 1544 Italian edition.

Pritzel notes that62 of the 703 woodcuts are non-botanic, as is emphasized in our choice of illustration here, and in addition to the plants, a variety of land and sea creatures (including porcupines, seahorses, and various shellfish) are illustrated here, as well as scenes of a man catching snakes, a hound chasing hares, a beekeeper with hives, farmers shearing sheep, a man riding an elephant, and more. (133 of the cuts, according to Pritzel, appear here for the first time — including one of a mummy.)

Evidence of readership:Extensive early inked marginalia in Latin, some illustrations with additional Latin captions in a different early inked hand; intermittent underlining.

This copy has lost its title-page and apparatus including the first of its two prefaces i.e., (the dialogues) and the preliminary index; but its primary preface (“Praefatio Dioscoridis”) and all of the Materia Medica itself are present.

 Adams D667; Brunet, III, 1538; Nissen, Botanishe Buchillustration, 1305; Pritzel 5985. Covers lacking, with sewing structure intact and in fact with thetext block workably solid; first text page tipped on (outer edge chipped), back fly-leaf tattered. Title-page, 100 preliminary, and 50 final pages (“Apologia adversus Amathum Lusitanum, cum censura in ejusdem ennarrationes”) lacking. Upper outer corners of about 20 early leaves dog-eared; a few leaves creased; two leaves with short tears from upper margins, not touching text; one leaf with tear from lower margin extending into text, without loss; one leaf with outer margin chipped, affecting marginalia and one shouldernote but not main text; one leaf with closed tear within text; one leaf with lower outer portion torn away, with loss of portions of ten lines. Scattered spots of mild staining and foxing; markings as above; some marginalia shaved. An imperfect copy, but one withall illustrations present, excellent evidence of contemporary scholarly interaction with the text, and binding structure exposed for potential study. Housed in a phase box for protection. (36428)

 Early and attractive American edition of these writings on natural history, Anglican theology, and moral philosophy. The first third of vol. I supplies Paley's biography, and that volume offers a frontispiece portrait of him; vol. V supplies an index.

 First edition: Over 3,000 species and their virtues described for the use of apothecaries and herbalists. Parkinson (1567–1650), who served officially as Royal Botanist to Charles I and unofficially as gardening mentor to his queen, Henrietta Maria, was also one of the founders of the Worshipful Society of Apothecaries — to which the allegorical frontispiece here may refer with the rhinoceros in its upper portion. The author of Paradisi in sole paradisus terrestris, Parkinson was much acclaimed by his contemporaries and by later botanists; Henrey cites Sir James Edward Smith's assessment that “this work [the Theatrum botanicum] and the herbal of Gerarde were the two main pillars of botany in England till the time of Ray.” Gerard and Parkinson indeed competed in publication, with the printing of the present work having been delayed several years so as to avoid marketplace clash with Johnson's edition of Gerard's herbal.

In the present work, Parkinson divided the plants by classes such as “Sweete smelling Plants,” “Purging Plants,” saxifrages, wound herbs, cooling herbs, “Strange and Outlandish Plants,” etc. Most of the entries are illustrated with in-text woodcuts, interspersed with pages wholly occupied by four images. Among the Americana content here are descriptions of Virginia bluebells, Peruvian mechacan, potatoes, and an assortment of “Ginny peppers” (with dire warnings regarding their fiery hotness); also present are28 previously unrecorded British species, including the strawberry tree and the lady's slipper orchid. The index and tables are organized by Latin name, English name, and medicinal property.

 ESTC S121875; Henrey 286; Johnston, Cleveland Herbal, Botanical, and Horticultural Collections, 197; Nissen 1490; Rohde, Old English Herbals, 142; STC (rev. ed.) 19302; Alden & Landis 640/143; Arents 212; Pritzel 6934; Hunt 235. Contemporary speckled calf framed in blind double fillets, spine with gilt-stamped red leather title-label; much worn with front joint open, hinges (inside) reinforced with linen tape, old refurbishments including shellacking. Front pastedown and engraved title-page reinforced, the latter by attachments to endpaper and title-page; preface leaf partly separated; first and last leaves generally tattered and a few others with marginal paper flaws, one affecting a few letters and a small portion of one image. Occasional marginal tears, one just touching text; three small ink spots to one leaf, touching two images, else scattered spots only; one spread with ink blot (possibly printer's) obscuring portions of five words. Some corners bumped, and index leaves creased with three partly split along creases; final table leaf and errata leaf with old repairs costing a few words. Some pagination erratic and pp. 845–48 laid in, supplied from a smaller-margined copy; front free endpaper with pencilled annotations regarding this copy. A worn and pored-over yet respectable copy of this important 17th-century herbal, withnice English and American provenance suggesting who did some of the poring. (34702)

Pomet, Pierre. A compleat history of druggs, written in French by Monsieur Pomet, chief druggist to the present French King; to which is added what is further observable on the same subject, from Messrs. Lemery, and Tournefort, divided into three classes, vegetable, animal and minera ... London: Pr. for R. Bonwicke, William Freeman, Timothy Goodwin, et al., 1712. 4to (22.5 cm, 8.9"). 2 parts in 1 vol. [8] ff., 420 (i.e., 440) pp., [6] ff.; 86 plts.$3800.00

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 First edition of the first appearance in English of Pomet's famed catalogue of pharmaceuticals, originally published in French in 1694. In his capacity as “Chief Druggist to the late French King Lewis XIV,” Pomet (1658–99) gained a highly favorable reputation for his knowledge and use of botanical and other drugs, and in 1694 he presented as much of his knowledge as he thought wise in his Histoire générale des drogues. This English edition adds material from the works of Joseph Pitton de Tournefort (1656–1708) and Nicolas Lémery (1645–1715), and was translated by Joseph Browne (1673–1721), a Lincoln College–educated physician and satirist.

Highly influential in its time, this materia medica covers botanical, zoological, and mineral sources and is illustrated with86 etched plates, mostly with four specimens per plate; but there are also full-page images of a silk factory, a fishery, and of “negro's [sic] making Roucou.” Other plates are of unicorns, whales, rhinos, and elephants. The volume is printed in roman type with some italic in double-column format, with its plates close to the texts that refer to them; the main title-page and that of vol. II are printed in red and black.

TheAmericana content is noteworthy, with discussion of cacao, chocolate, “long American pepper,” tobacco, and so on. Two surprising sections are devoted to glass manufacture and achieving color in glass, and soap making.

Provenance: Front pastedown with small ex-libris reading “Wisdom of God in Creation” on a garter, encircling a portrait, with a heraldic lion above. Front free endpaper with attractively inked inscription: “Worcestershire Natural History Society / Presented by O.J. Floyd, Esq. / March 11th 1848"; endpaper and first few leaves with pressure-stamp of Worcester Public Library.

 Second andfor the first time self-publishededition of this groundbreaking, best-selling guide to botanically derived medicines, written by the chief pharmacist to Louis XIV. Highly influential in its time, Pomet's materia medica covers botanical, zoological, and mineral sources and is illustrated in this edition withalmost 200 copper-engraved, in-text images including many of the plants described along with subjects such as coral, ostriches, and fish, not to mention exotica like mummies, unicorns, and some extremely implausibly depicted rhinoceroses and whales. Also present are images of harvesting and processing sugar cane, indigo, and tobacco (all depicting black workers). In addition, the final addendum, “Remarques tres-curieuses sur plusieurs vegetaux, animaux, mineraux, & autres, que j'ai oublié d'inserer dans la premiere impression, ou que j'ai découvert du depuis,” supplies information on mercury, cinnabar, antimony, etc., along with five tipped-in plates showing mechoacan, Virginia snakeroot, indigo, drakena, and an assortment of bezoars. TheAmericana content is noteworthy, with discussion of cacao, chocolate, tobacco, jalap, and so on. Tea and coffee are present as well.

This second edition was retitled by Pomet from the original Histoire générale des drogues, and is both less widely held and less frequently described in bibliographies (WorldCat and NUC Pre-1956 locate only seven U.S. institutional holdings). It opens with a frontispiece portrait of the author, done by A. le Clerc the Younger, facing a title-page vignette by I. Crespy; sections open with decorative headpieces and capitals and many close with tailpieces.

 Alden & Landis 695/147; Hunersdorff & Hasenkamp, Coffee, 1177–1179; Wellcome Catalogue, IV, 411 (for first ed.); Krivatsy 9137. Contemporary mottled calf, spine gilt extra and with gilt-stamped leather title-label; ; binding rubbed and scuffed with leather pitted, front joint cracked but holding, spine refurbished with untooled leather replacing that lost in bottom compartment. First few leaves with edges darkened and slightly ragged; dedication and first leaf of preface with inkstains in upper margins; early portion with light waterstaining in upper margins. Several leaves with tears from margins, some extending into text without loss; a few leaves with small rectangular portion of lower inner margins cut away and two with corners torn away, one with loss of a few words and the other wish loss of about ten; two leaves each with a tiny burn hole affecting one letter. One leaf torn across, tear going through two images without loss; one leaf with small ink smears entering into an image frame (for “De la Colle de Poisson”), not approaching the images themselves. Clearly a much-read, pored-over example of this great 17th-century treatise, and also onefit for much moreenjoyment and “action.” (34643)

 First American edition of the brothers Robertson's wonderful account of their travels in South America culminating in their arrival in Paraguay and an extended residence there. They also recount the efforts to emancipate the various South American regions from Spanish control, compare and contrast Portuguese and Spanish America, describe flora and fauna, discuss native populations, etc. The preliminary leaves of advertisements for other books from the same publishers have their own additional interest.

 American Imprints 52683; Sabin 71961. This edition not in Palau. Publisher's pebbled brown cloth bindings: black tape at top of one spine and onto the covers. Bindings show modest wear, publisher's paper spine labels slightly chipped; text blocks slightly skewed in bindings and light waterstaining in lower inner margins of vol. I. Exsocial club library: 19th-century bookplate, call number on endpaper, pressure-stamp on title-page, no other markings. (28891)

 Uncommon illustrated variant of the classic fable of Reynard the Fox, featuring a copper-engraved frontispiece and 21 headpiece vignettes — these being large for “headpieces,” and sometimes somewhat “Sendakian” in style! The preface cites the pan-European nature of the tale, and notes that this version was translated from the German.

WorldCat locates only two copies in the U.S., but we know of one other.